3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.

4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. (SarahB – you did not do this for me. FAIL!)

5. If you don’t have 7 blog friends, or if someone else already took dibs, then tag some unsuspecting strangers.

THE FACTS:

1. I played French Horn for 13 years. I sat various chairs, but enjoyed third chair the most. You got the melody and the fun, showy stuff, without the pressure of the solos. I proudly attended band camp. Twice. I have stories that actually start with, “one time at band camp…my best friend Jason puked orange juice all over another band camper while waiting in line for the mess hall.” I played in marching bands and wind ensembles and orchestras in high school and college. I loved playing the horn. However, I always struggled with my embouchure – I wasn’t a natural horn player. I’ve always felt my instrument was the Trombone, which was proven when I picked one up randomly a few years ago and started playing it effortlessly. Sigh…

2. I have horrible eyesight. Without my glasses or contacts, I am pretty much blind. for those that care, -5.50 in each eye.

3. I cannot sleep in a bed where the sheets are not tucked in at the end. It drives me mad. Gator’s a flip-flopper when he sleeps, and I’m known for getting up in the middle of the night and making the bed to how I like it.

4. In the past two years, when I get stressed, my vision gets blurry.

5. And now for a very brief and incomplete overview of how I came to love musicals: It started with Cats, which I saw in NYC when I was 8ish. Laurie Beechman was Griz. LOVED everything about it. I still love Cats to this day. Then, I followed that up with the first national tour of Les Misérables in Detroit when I was 9ish (which, interestingly, starred Victoria Clark (Madame Thernadier), Hollis Resnick (Fantine) and Melissa Errico (Cosette)). At 12, I next discovered the wonder of Phantom in Toronto. This was followed by various trips to Toronto for Miss Saigon, Crazy for You (which taught me that musicals could a) be written by people other than ALW, and b) could be funny, glittery and tap-dancy) and…Phantom. Then I randomly caught a broadcast of Into the Woods on Bravo (back when they showed performances, and not Rachel Zoe) in a hotel room on my way to BAND CAMP (no joke) when I was 14. Which made me buy the cast recording. And then I quickly became obsessed with Sondheim, discovering Sweeney Todd and Passion (in that order) when I was 14 or 15 – thanks to Camelot Music in the Alpena Mall! I then went back to the banality of ALW, dragging my mom to see Sunset Boulevard, a show my friend Jason introduced me to, starring Dianne Carroll when I was 15. That show became a major obsession for a while. Then, Jamie introduced me to Sunday in the Park with George and…Steel Peer (!) when I was 16 or so. And then I was all about Bernadette Peters (which I knew from ITW) and Kander and Ebb. And then Patti LuPone came into my radar when Tony Bump gave me an LP (!) of the ’88 revival of Anything Goes. And then it’s all a blur…

6. Broccoli gives me horrible gas.

7. My taste in movies is admittedly bad. I enjoy dumb college and road trip movies. I like camp and comedy. Crappy horror movies make me happy. Typically, it’s a very very rare thing if I’ve seen any of the year’s Oscar nominated films.

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3 thoughts on “Tag! I’m it”

French Horn! But honey, I would never dream of being anything but first chair! My specialty was the high f#. I didn’t learn to play bass clef horn until way after college (Austin Horn Choir!) and I too went to band camp at last twice. It was the popcorn and my first date in which we saw Dragon Slayer that did me in though. Blah.

And only -5.5? You call that blind? I’m -9 on the right and -10 on the left.